Sometimes We All Have To Execute Rule 34

Sometimes We All Have To Execute Rule 34

Something that most modern anime fans know is, every once in a while we all have to “execute Rule 34.” This is an internet meme dating back to a 2007 4chan post which states that “If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.” This means that in the highly interconnected media-based world we live in, there is nothing, no pure relationship between classmates, no inanimate object, that is safe from being turned into the subject of salacious material for the visual enjoyment of those who want to consume this kind of thing, because the Internet is governed by Rule 34.

What ironic and/or horrifying examples of Rule 34 have you encountered?

The other day I caught a post on the BBC about an increasing number of men who are taking their wives’ family names when they marry for various reasons. I smiled, because this is not a rare thing at all in Japan. Japanese married couples are required by law to have the same family name, but it’s not rare at all for the husband to take his wife’s name if he’s entering her home, which essentially means he’s being adopted by his wife’s parents, legally becoming their son. This is related to the way everything from how people are listed in the official family register to which grave they’ll enter when they die is based on which household they belong to. Males taking their wives’ names happens in anime, too: in Evangelion, when Gendou marries Yui he gives up his “maiden” name of Rokubungi and takes her family name of Ikari as his own. The only couples in Japan allowed to have different family names are foreigners or Japanese married to foreigners, like my wife and I. We are a 別姓夫婦 bessei fuufu or married couple allowed to keep separate last names through a special law.